Head of Supplier Collaboration

NS&I is one of the largest savings organisations in the UK with more than 24 million customers and over £240 billion invested. We are both a government department and an Executive Agency of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Our origins can be traced back more than 150 years to 1861.

A small company with a big reach, we offer a range of benefits including flexible working, a 9-day fortnight scheme, a performance-related variable pay bonus, a generous pension scheme and great opportunities for development. We care for colleagues, respect one another, invest in our people and manage talent effectively.

We are currently working in a hybrid way with colleagues expected to work at their chosen office location for 40% of their working month.

The primary purpose of this role is to lead and facilitate the collaborative achievement of NS&I’s core business objectives by enabling suppliers to work together efficiently within NS&I’s multi-supplier outsourced model. This role will ensure ongoing alignment with the organisation’s strategic goals by providing proactive facilitation and effective leadership, to ensure that all involved parties contribute to the successful, effective, and seamless delivery of end-to-end services across NS&I’s ongoing transformation programme and critical operational functions.

Act as the Collaboration Manager under the contractual agreements with outsourced service partners to support the NS&I Director’s accountability as SIAM and enable the Suppliers to deliver their respective Service Agreements

• Accountable for managing relationships with our strategic suppliers and fulfilling contractual obligations, acting with delegated authority to ensure compliance with the Collaboration Agreement.
• Lead and embed collaborative practices across NS&I and strategic supplier partner organisations to ensure seamless delivery, proactive issue resolution, and alignment with transformation goals. Enable cross-functional coordination and collaborative fulfilment of dependencies and obligations through early engagement and joined-up planning.
• Embed the NS&I Collaboration Agreement and lead behavioural alignment across delivery teams—ensuring collaborative practices reflect contractual expectations, support open engagement, and enable consistent partnership working.

Foster and facilitate a collaborative delivery approach across the multi-supplier environment for the transformation programme and operational services

• Represent NS&I in governance forums, working groups, and Supplier Performance Review Boards—ensuring visibility and collaborative decision-making and challenge where necessary.
• Drives cross-party collaboration and joined-up planning—supporting impact assessments, issue and incident resolution across managed service functions. Enables early engagement and collaborative fulfilment of dependencies and contractual obligations with Strategic Partners and Third-Party Providers.
• Lead stakeholder engagement activities with suppliers to resolve emerging issues and support innovation, driving fair outcomes, continuous improvement and value co-creation.
• Ensure compliance with collaboration obligations, managing dependencies, and cascading collaborative behaviours through the supply chain to support seamless service delivery and contractual commitments.
• Promote a solution-first mindset, encouraging teams and suppliers to address and resolve issues promptly, then proactively address root causes to prevent repetition.

Create a collaborative culture focused on quality, resilience, continuous improvement and innovation to maximise the value from our partner expertise

• Champion a customer-focused culture by empowering teams, respecting roles, and fostering transparent collaboration—delivering seamless, end-to-end services through proactive resolution and shared success.
• Working with Transformation, Enterprise Service Management and the suppliers to identify and address opportunities to improve processes and deliver objectives.
• Intervenes in emerging collaboration issues at an early stage, mediating before escalation to the Director Team. Manages formal governance processes if disputes remain unresolved, ensuring timely resolution.

Work with Partners to agree practical multi-party continuity protocols, including plans in place to maintain contact with all stakeholders if normal channels fail. Take steps to ensure collaboration agreements remain effective during crises.

Please view the role profile and candidate pack for further information about the role and recruitment campaign.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

To apply, please click the link on this advert and follow the steps to complete the application form.

In your application you will be asked to provide the following

• An outline of your career history and qualifications with your key responsibilities and achievements

A 500 word personal statement on the key essential experience:

• Experience of working with contracts and multi-supplier environments
• Experience of technology delivery and business transformation within complex projects or programmes.
• Understanding of agile development and delivery in programme contexts.

If in the instance where we have 25 or more applications, only the first criteria of essential experience will be assessed:

• Experience of working with contracts and multi-supplier environments

A 250 word statement for each selected behaviour below at sift. Please use examples from your experience and knowledge to demonstrate how you meet them addressing the essential criteria in the Person Specification.

• Leadership
• Working Together

If shortlisted, you will be invited to attend a 1 hour panel interview via video call.

Interviews will take place week commencing 23rd November 2026.

Right to Work

As part of our recruitment process NS&I will ask about your right to work status. Candidates must have the right to work in the UK and meet eligibility requirements to work within the UK Civil Service.

If applying for a role on a fixed-term contract, you must hold a valid visa that covers the full duration of the contract, or at a minimum, the majority of the term.

Please note we are currently unable to offer visa sponsorship, as a result candidates requiring sponsorship are not eligible to apply.

Security and Credit Checks

This role is subject to Baseline Personnel Security Standard and financial credit checks.

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Working for NS&I

Any move to NS&I from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.

For NS&I employees: If you are applying for a role at the same NS&I band as you are currently and the advertised salary of the role is higher, if you are successful, any salary increase will be at the discretion of NS&I and will be reviewed as part of the next annual pay review, in accordance with the NS&I employee handbook.

For existing permanent NS&I employees: Please be aware that if you are a permanent employee appointed to a fixed term role, our recruiting principles ensure you will retain your permanent status at the end of this contract. However, you are not guaranteed to return to your original role. At the conclusion of this fixed term period, you may be redeployed to another suitable role at NS&I, offered retraining or will be given priority mover status to find another role in the civil service.

For NS&I employees on a fixed term contract: If moving to another fixed term role, you will continue to be employed for a fixed term to the end date of this role. You may apply for suitable roles within NS&I or the civil service.

For Existing Civil Servants: If you are transferring from another government department at the same grade, your current salary will generally be matched within reasonable parameters and subject to NS&I pay ranges. If you are transferring on promotion, you will be offered the starting salary at the bottom of the pay scale. If you are transferring on promotion and your existing salary is within the advertised range, you will be offered a maximum of a 10% uplift on your existing salary (up to the advertised maximum).

For External Candidates: If you are not currently employed within the civil service, you will be offered the starting salary at the bottom of the advertised pay range.

Regular Travel

This role will require regular travel to other sites, please be aware if you travel to a second location on average 4 days a month, you may be liable for P11D taxation. If you have any queries concerning this please contact the NS&I HR Team.

Further information

Please visit our website http://nsandi-corporate.com/about-nsi for further details about NS&I.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.